Strategic Communications Plans

The most effective communications initiatives begin with a strategic communications plan. Working with key leaders, I nail down outcomes and impacts, key messages, effective messengers, branding, and tactics that will impact audiences and effect change. These great plans are designed to suit clients’ mission, expertise, and budget.

The best way to do this is through:

Research and discovery – undertaking appropriate opinion research and message testing, as well as interviewing key players

Creative sessions with key leaders to surface important issues and build consensus

Agreement on goals and outcomes

Identifying target audiences and what we actually want them to do

Developing powerful messages that work

Building an array of tactics to repeat the message enough to have an impact

Re-tooling staffing and creating communications budgets

Evaluation

Rinse and repeat

Some recent plans:

The Organization

The Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) partnership is growing stronger and more resilient. The family planning community faces new challenges and obstacles, but is working to overcome those challenges, seize new opportunities and bring this critical health care service to women and girls who need and want it. The report tracks progress in 69 of the world’s poorest countries to advance access to rights-based contraceptive options for girls and women.

The Work

Working with Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) and our London-based partner, Bartley Robbs Communications we led the communications planning and media outreach for the launch of FP2020’s 2017 annual progress report, FP2020: The Way Ahead. We helped the organization develop the key messages they wanted to push out, hosted a media telebriefing, and ultimately helped them earn over 160 media placements, including Reuters, The Lancet, Financial Times, and Devex.

The Organization

Launched in New Delhi in November 2014, the Initiative was established as a collective response by individuals from multilateral institutions, non-governmental organizations and funding agencies concerned about the global impact of violence in childhood and the lack of investment in effective violence prevention strategies.

The Work

Know Violence in Childhood hired us to lead media outreach for the launch of their flagship global report which documents shockingly high levels of violence against children. We led a workshop to create their messages, developed the social media strategy, and hosted telebriefings for reporters around the world. Along with our London-based partner, Bartley Robbs Communications (BRC), we reached out to media based in Europe, the Americas, Africa and other countries throughout the world. Combined, DG+CO and BRC earned over 90 media placements, including The Guardian, Reuters, and Voice of America.

The Organization

The Independent Accountability Panel (IAP) was appointed by the UN Secretary General under the auspices of the World Health Organization to assess implementation of the United Nations’ Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health 2016–2030. Composed of distinguished panelists from backgrounds that range from human rights experts to humanitarian leaders to statisticians, the IAP was tasked with creating an accountability framework to hold the global community accountable to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Global Strategy.

The Work

DG+CO worked with the IAP to create a comprehensive multi-year communications plan, messages, branding, and design. We helped them release the group’s first report, including web and print design, copy editing, media outreach, and social media support. DG+CO created a plan for the IAP, which identified key messages, target audiences, communications opportunities, and tactics. The strategy was crafted to highlight the urgent need to hold local, regional, and global health leaders accountable to health commitments made to women, children, and adolescents. We helped to launch a new website for the IAP’s first report, which takes visitors through key sections of the report in a visually engaging way.

The Organization

Arkansas Community Colleges (ACC) collaborates with government agencies, educational institutions, and private foundations to improve the ability of member colleges to meet the needs of their students and local community members. The CollegeCount$ project is a research project funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller, Ford, and Annie E. Casey Foundations to document the impact of Arkansas Career Pathways – a unique statewide program that prepares recipients of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families for jobs that require associate degrees or professional certificates. Through intensive support services and counseling, this unique program has demonstrated dramatic completion rates and has improved the incomes of participants.

The Work

Doug has led the creation of the overall communications strategy, the naming, logo design, website design and development, design and development of infographics, design of written reports, and written or helped write the releases for this project.

The Organization

Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS) connects early career professionals with leading companies and invests in their continued success. The nonprofit promotes upward mobility, professional success, financial independence, and lifelong learning for veterans and underserved jobseekers.

The Work

DG+CO created a strategic communications plan and new message platform for WOS and its newest service – WOS Digital.

The Organization

Science Friday is American Public Media’s flagship science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide, which aims to increase understanding and appreciation of science.

The Work

Working for the program and its education and outreach arm – the Science Friday Initiative, Doug, and colleagues at Washburn Carmichael, a fundraising firm, identified goals, key messages, and effective messengers, as well as sharply defined activities to increase visibility and funding.

The Organization

The Work

After an organizational audit, Doug and colleagues devised messages focused on protecting the safety of healers in conflict zones and branding elements to strengthen the main themes of the campaign. We provided strategic advice to effectively communicate messages using media outreach, online communications, publications, celebrities, events, and activists.

The Organization

The Social Innovation Fund is a government initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) that invests in promising, community-based solutions with evidence of success.

The Work

Working with our strategic partner – Campaign Consultation, Inc. – Doug created a strategic communications plan that outlined key audiences, messages, and promotional tactics. We then executed our plan – securing media coverage in a range of blogs and newsletters and identifying speaking opportunities focused on the social sector for the Fund’s Executive Director. We advised on the organization’s annual grantee convening and also prepped grantee spokespeople before a major White House event.

The Organization

Dr. Lawrence Krauss, best-selling author and theoretical physicist, founded the Origins Project at Arizona State University to convene the world’s leading scientists to study the origins of all things.

The Work

Working in partnership with our colleagues, Washburn Carmichael, Doug created a multi-year strategic communications and development plan to expand the project’s visibility.

The Organization

The Milbank Memorial Fund works to improve the health of populations by connecting leaders and decision makers with the best available evidence and experience.

The Work

Doug led the Milbank Memorial Fund through a full-scale communications strategy. We audited the organization’s existing communications output and website. Then, we provided actionable recommendations to be incorporated into new messaging and initiatives. Doug is currently coaching the Fund’s team on the development of a new plan.